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Making small gestures, having a personal approach, being open to feedback can help you improve member experience in your coworking space. In this post, you will find helpful tips from Miryana Stancheva, Community, Sales & Partnerships Manager at Ahoy Berlin.
Remember the last time you felt delighted as a customer of a coworking space?
Probably it wonβt take you long to recall the experience and tell exactly what made you feel happy.
And certainly, it wasnβt only about the great office space and amenities but also about the fact that you were treated amazingly well.
And would that be a reason to visit the space again? Most probably – yes!
As any business related to people, coworking and flexible spaces, embrace hospitality as an important building block for success. And even though hospitality is most often associated with the hotel industry, it has a lot to do with coworking as well.
Ahoy Berlin, a client of ours, has nailed the top-notch customer experience by adopting hospitality practices that add on top of their excellent workspace service.
We sat down to interview Miryana Stancheva, Community, Sales & Partnerships Manager at Ahoy Berlin, on the importance of hospitality. This role places her at the heart of the most essential processes in the company.
2019 Update: In 2019, Miryana joined our team as a Customer Success & Onboarding Specialist. Her rich experience in the flexible workspace industry makes her an invaluable member of our team, helping us constantly improve our customer service. π
The following interview is preserved in its original form.
Ahoy Berlin is a space for coworking and innovation, where individuals and companies can rent fully equipped work stations, quiet offices and organize events under flexible terms in a playful and cozy environment. The companyβs mission is to help budding startups and freelancers grow by connecting them to a wider community of possible collaborators and investors via its sister companies Openers and Tech Open Air.
The space was founded in 2012 by Nikita Roshkow and Nikolas Woischnik and currently has two locations: Berlin, Germany and Sao Paulo, Brazil. In June 2018, Ahoy was acquired by US agile office provider Knotel as part of its plan to launch further locations across Germany.
I became part of the coworking world in 2013 when I was about to start my PhD studies in Organisational Psychology and I was searching for an inspiring, unexplored topic that is really worth researching.
I accidentally came across betahaus|Sofia, which was the first and, at that time, the only coworking space in Bulgaria.
It was a sudden realization for me that coworking spaces have a very specific structure, organization, processes, and culture. I knew this is something unique which no one in Bulgaria had ever researched.
I eventually ended up with defending a PhD thesis on βShared (co)working spaces and interaction models within the enterpriseβ in 2017.
This is how my deep dive into the coworking world began. Over the years I had the chance to visit around 100 coworking spaces across Europe, to meet amazing inspiring people, to work in great spaces and since 2017 Iβm part of the Ahoy Berlin Team.
Iβm responsible for the community, sales and partnerships processes at Ahoy Berlin.
Being a successful Community Manager requires a diverse mix of social skills, deep understanding of the group dynamics, ability to observe and analyze the community processes, and creativity to tackle every situation with a hands-on attitude.
On the other hand, it requires organizational skills and event management knowledge – at Ahoy Berlin we organize regularly different community events (networking and professionally oriented), we host numerous meetups and support our members in organizing their own events.
The other face of my role shows in Sales & Partnerships – Iβm responsible for keeping the space fully booked – close sales deals, onboard new members, make sure they feel comfortable in their new βhomeβ. I also do invoicing, track payments, etc.
Together with that, Iβm also in charge of building a wide network of partners with diverse backgrounds who can offer interesting products and services to our community and coworking business.
credits: Ahoy Berlin
What I like most about coworking is the opportunity to belong to a diverse community; to be surrounded by like-minded, motivated, hardworking people in a healthy inspiring working environment which helps you to increase your productivity and effectiveness and gives you the freedom to be yourself and explore different creative ways to approach your daily tasks.
I really cherish the openness of the people, who have chosen to work in coworking spaces – they are always ready to share knowledge and experience, to give you free advice, feedback and help.
And what I like about my job is that Iβm lucky to work with an amazing team with strong, transparent and supportive culture, and to have a complex and dynamic role, which combines and balances two, on a first glance, opposing concepts – the social and the financial wellbeing of the space.
Hospitality plays a huge role in the coworking movement and itβs not only about renting out desks – in coworking the concept of hospitality is not a compulsory service which community managers should deliver to the members, but a personal attitude and a personal relationship which evolves over time.
This is one of the reasons why all independent coworking spaces are so different from one another, and why the role of the Community Manager is an important one – he/she is the person who transforms this concept of hospitality into a unique community culture and is responsible to preserve, develop and enrich it constantly.
Only when you have this personal approach, youβll be able to call your space a coworking spaceΒ and not a shared office space.
Moreover, I do believe that exactly this culture, based on hospitality and personal approach, is the reason why a coworking space would attract and retain a specific type of members.
Also, this is how a space develops its own distinctive identity.
We like to make small gestures for our members and want to make sure they have a great experience being part of our community.
We bring them gifts on various occasions, make announcements on Slack for their success, organize regular community events. We support members and their business development by connecting them with other members and external partners.
But what I think is vital in order for your members to feel good, is to know well your community, to be able to identify their profile and based on that, to tailor the initiatives in your space and not just to organize events which might sound βcoolβ but are absolutely not relevant to them.
Some of the events we regularly organize and work very well for our community are breakfasts and lunches, meetups, skills exchange, ping-pong tournaments, karaokes, gatherings outside the space over a drink, etc.
Itβs a very interesting and dynamic process of trying new things and constantly adapting to the community which is also changing very fast.
credits: Ahoy Berlin
We have a well-structured system when welcoming our new members. First of all, we make sure that we already know each other, that we have exchanged enough information before the on-boarding day, so we know what they do and what they are looking for, that they are informed what to expect and what the community is like.
When the day to move in comes, we give them a welcome package with some goodies, sometimes we grab a coffee together, we spend as much time as needed with them to explain everything important and to introduce them to the community.
Moreover, we always send a welcome email that contains the most important information about the space, the services, and the facilities, but also, information about the team who runs Ahoy Berlin.
And here is the crucial part in the community building process – you have to keep takingΒ care of your members and talk to them after the onboarding π
We always encourage our members to give us regular feedback, to openly share suggestions and ideas with us and to contribute to the communityβs well-being with activities and initiatives they want to organize.
Weβre actually planning to conduct a satisfaction survey soon and give the freedom to every member out of these 400 people in our space, to share their opinion and suggestions – because only when you listen to your members youβll be able to grow and do better in the future.
Also, coworking member apps can be especially beneficial for enhancing the communication your team has with your community
In my opinion, coworking is as much about the service you provide, as it is about the way you approach your members. Listen to them, be open and accept their feedback. Act on it and improve.
We’ve got a few more resources we think might be also useful to you. Here there are:
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Set up the system on your own, following our detailed video guide. We will send you a step-by-step daily email with video tutorials on how to configure OfficeRnD. Once you Π°re ready, we will put you in contact with an onboarding specialist for up to 2 hours of Q&A sessions, where you can ask questions and verify your setup.
Take advantage of this 6-hour dedicated onboarding process during which our team helps you set OfficeRnD up following best practices. We will start with a short kick-off session to discuss your current processes, timelines, integrations and outline a step-by-step plan to ensure the smooth adoption of the system on your end. Our Onboarding Specialists will make the most effective use of your time together working to empower you to take full advantage of the system capabilities on your own.
This onboarding package is best for multi-location teams with complicated workflows. We will start with a short kick-off session to discuss your current processes, timelines, integrations and outline a step-by-step plan to ensure the smooth adoption of the system on your end. Our Onboarding Specialists will make the most effective use of your time together working to empower you to take full advantage of the system capabilities and reporting tools on your own.
Get familiar with the essentials in the Basic Support Package.
Get familiar with the essentials in the Standard Support Package.
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Get direct access to one of our lead support specialists and book up to 4 hours of screen-sharing calls per month with them.
We will cover the basic CRM functionalities OfficeRnD supports. We will show you how to create, update and delete companies, members and opportunities. We will show you how to create custom properties to better describe them. Weβll demonstrate how to create memberships for members, change their status and invite them on the members portal.
We will cover all billing options available in OfficeRnD. We will show you how to create tax rates and revenue accounts, how will they be applied on invoices and what discounting options the system provides. We will demonstrate how to create invoices and manually run the bill run. We will also together review the billing settings in the system and automate the billing operations.
We will show you how to create meeting rooms and configure their pricing options, booking and cancellation policies. We will cover how to create booking credits β hourly and value-based. We will demonstrate how to make a booking and how to review its corresponding fee.
We will go over what a contract is, what are its building blocks, and what types of contracts OfficeRnD provides. We will show you how to create contracts, how to sign and how-to terminate them. We will also discuss the lifecycle of each contract.
We will show you the default resource types available in OfficeRnD. We will cover how they can be edited and when should you create custom resource types. We will demonstrate how to assign memberships on the floorplan and how to accommodate floorplan changes.
We will cover how to collaborate with members via the members portal and the mobile app. We will show you how to create posts and events. We will demonstrate how to upload information about benefits and different how-to guides on the members portal. We will also go through integrations that power up collaboration with members.
We will cover the billing reports available in the system. We will show you how to use each one and dive deeper into the data it exposes.
We will cover the occupancy and utilization reports available in the system. We will show you how to use each one and dive deeper into the data it exposes.
Set up the system on your own, following our detailed video guide. We will send you a step-by-step daily email with video tutorials on how to configure OfficeRnD. Once you Π°re ready, we will put you in contact with an onboarding specialist for up to 2 hours of Q&A sessions, where you can ask questions and verify your setup.
Take advantage of this 6-hour dedicated onboarding process during which our team helps you set OfficeRnD up following best practices. We will start with a short kick-off session to discuss your current processes, timelines, integrations and outline a step-by-step plan to ensure the smooth adoption of the system on your end. Our Onboarding Specialists will make the most effective use of your time together working to empower you to take full advantage of the system capabilities on your own.
This onboarding package is best for multi-location teams with complicated workflows. We will start with a short kick-off session to discuss your current processes, timelines, integrations and outline a step-by-step plan to ensure the smooth adoption of the system on your end. Our Onboarding Specialists will make the most effective use of your time together working to empower you to take full advantage of the system capabilities and reporting tools on your own.
Get familiar with the essentials in the Basic Support Package.
Get familiar with the essentials in the Standard Support Package.
Get familiar with the essentials in the Premium Support Package.
Get direct access to one of our lead support specialists and book up to 4 hours of screen-sharing calls per month with them.
We will cover the basic CRM functionalities OfficeRnD supports. We will show you how to create, update and delete companies, members and opportunities. We will show you how to create custom properties to better describe them. Weβll demonstrate how to create memberships for members, change their status and invite them on the members portal.
We will cover all billing options available in OfficeRnD. We will show you how to create tax rates and revenue accounts, how will they be applied on invoices and what discounting options the system provides. We will demonstrate how to create invoices and manually run the bill run. We will also together review the billing settings in the system and automate the billing operations.
We will show you how to create meeting rooms and configure their pricing options, booking and cancellation policies. We will cover how to create booking credits β hourly and value-based. We will demonstrate how to make a booking and how to review its corresponding fee.
We will go over what a contract is, what are its building blocks, and what types of contracts OfficeRnD provides. We will show you how to create contracts, how to sign and how-to terminate them. We will also discuss the lifecycle of each contract.
We will show you the default resource types available in OfficeRnD. We will cover how they can be edited and when should you create custom resource types. We will demonstrate how to assign memberships on the floorplan and how to accommodate floorplan changes.
We will cover how to collaborate with members via the members portal and the mobile app. We will show you how to create posts and events. We will demonstrate how to upload information about benefits and different how-to guides on the members portal. We will also go through integrations that power up collaboration with members.
We will cover the billing reports available in the system. We will show you how to use each one and dive deeper into the data it exposes.
We will cover the occupancy and utilization reports available in the system. We will show you how to use each one and dive deeper into the data it exposes.
Plan Overview | |||
What's included? | 100 members 1 location | 200 members 2 locations | tailor-made plan to match your business needs |
Additional members | Add-on ![]() | Add-on ![]() | |
Additional locations | Add-on ![]() | ||
Members limit | 200 members | 500 members | custom |
Locations limit | 1 location | 4 locations | custom |
Contracts and memberships | |||
Membership management | β | β | β |
Full-range contract types | β | β | β |
Customizable contract templates | β | β | β |
Contract lifecycle management | β | β | β |
Configurable stepped deals | β | β | β |
Contract approval workflow | β | β | β |
Billing and payments | |||
Custom recurring and one-off plans | β | β | β |
Automatic billing and invoicing | β | β | β |
Payment gateway integrations | β | β | β |
Deep integration with Xero and Quickbooks | β | β | β |
Meeting room bookings | |||
Meeting room inventory and pricing management | β | β | β |
Allocate hourly or monetary credits to memberships | β | β | β |
Set rules for meeting room bookings and cancelations | β | β | β |
Public meeting room booking portal | β | β | β |
Member apps | |||
Members mobile app | β | β | β |
Member portal | β | β | β |
Branded apps + push notifications ![]() | Add-on | Add-on | β |
Rooms tablet app | β | β | β |
Reception tablet app![]() | Add-on | β | β |
Reporting and analytics | |||
Revenue report | β | β | β |
Occupancy report | β | β | β |
Invoices and ballance | β | β | β |
Space growth | β | β | β |
Check-ins | β | β | β |
Analytics Core NEW | β | β | β |
Lead and member management | |||
Member and company accounts | β | β | β |
Leads and opportunities | β | β | β |
Guest management | β | β | β |
Issue tracking | β | β | β |
Occupancy and resources | |||
Interactive floor plans | β | β | β |
Visual resource management | β | β | β |
Occupancy dashboards | β | β | β |
Utilization reports | β | β | β |
Custom resources | β | β | β |
Integrations | |||
Accounting | |||
Xero | β | β | β |
QuickBooks | β | β | β |
Payment | |||
Stripe | β | β | β |
GoCardless | β | β | β |
Paypal | β | β | β |
Authorize.net | Add-on | β | β |
Braintree | β | β | |
Forte | β | β | |
Placepay | β | β | |
Ezidebit | β | β | |
Omise | β | β | |
Bottomline | β | β | |
WorldPay | β | β | |
CardConnect | β | β | |
PayDock | β | β | |
Door Access | |||
Salto KS | β | β | β |
Salto ProAccess ![]() | Add-on | Add-on | β |
KISI | β | β | β |
Brivo | β | β | β |
Printing | |||
ezeep | β | β | β |
WiFi Network / Check-in | |||
Medusa WiFi | β | β | β |
MikroTik | β | β | β |
Aruba | β | β | β |
Iron Wifi | β | β | β |
Cisco Meraki | β | β | β |
CRM | |||
HubSpot CRM | β | β | β |
Capsule | β | β | β |
Rialto | β | β | β |
Collaboration & Community | |||
Slack | β | β | β |
Google Calendar | β | β | β |
Zapier | β | β | β |
Included.co | β | β | β |
Electronic Signatures | |||
HelloSign | β | β | β |
*additional charges per eSignature | *additional charges per eSignature | *additional charges per eSignature | |
Security & Extensibility | |||
Single sign-on (SSO) ![]() | Add-on | β | |
Webhooks ![]() | Add-on | β | |
API access ![]() | β | ||
Test environment ![]() | Add-on | β | |
Customer Success & Support | |||
Standard | β | β | |
Ultimate | Add-on | Add-on | β |
Dedicated Customer Success Manager | β |
During Your Onboarding Period | |||
Dedicated Onboarding Specialist | β | β | |
Onboarding Calls and/or Training Sessions | 2 hours | 3 hours/month | 5 hours/month |
After Your Onboarding Period | |||
Access to Documentation Portal and Resources | β | β | β |
Email & Chat Support ![]() | β | β | β |
Priority Case Handling | β | β | |
Dedicated Support Specialist | β | ||
Phone Support NEW![]() | β | ||
Dedicated Q&A Support Sessions | 2 hours/month | 4 hours/month | |
Document & Template Customization ![]() | Add-on ![]() | 1 doc/month | 2 docs/month |
Support Response Time | |||
Critical | 4h | 2h | 1h |
Restricted Operations | 24h | 12h | 8h |
Normal Severity | 24h | 20h | 10h |